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If you leave your wallet on the ground in a park in SF, the chances you’ll get it back are probably pretty high. If you leave it in your locked car, your car wi

If you leave your wallet on the ground in a park in SF, the chances you’ll get it back are probably pretty high. If you leave it in your locked car, your car will probably get broken into. Thieves are strategic. They’re not looking around in parks for lost wallets, nor are they going to libraries hoping they can lift a bunch of unattended books.

HenryBemis 3y ago
I don't want to give them any ideas, but some books are expensive/of high value/rare/etc.
- gylterud 3y ago
  The trick is knowing which ones, and how to find a buyer.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
Emma_Goldman 3y ago
Career thieves wouldn't scour a park for wallets, no, but many people are opportunistic thieves. If they happen upon money with no one in sight, they'll just take it, without thinking it's a big deal. The case in the article matches the second model, not the first. Hundreds of people realised they were in a library with no staff. Two-hundred books were taken out, presumably without anyone having to log their names. That would have made it extremely easy for them to just keep the books. But they were returned. Having few opportunistic thieves is, one would think, a good sign of societal trust and well-being. I'll just mention that security at UK university libraries is fairly tight, I know people who have accidently taken out books without logging them, and just kept them, and there have been cases at Cambridge where quite high-value books have gone missing.
- kqr 3y ago
  > Two-hundred books were taken out, presumably without anyone having to log their names. The article states that every book taken out was returned. I see two alternatives: 1. The staff conducted a full inventory a couple of weeks after the incident and confirmed that every book is still there. (By the way, at what rate are books smuggled out even during regular opening hours?) 2. The books that were taken out were borrowed against a library card using some sort of self-checkout station. I find option 2 much more likely, which meant the names were logged.
  - Emma_Goldman 3y ago
    Perfectly possible, but if there were no staff, that means that the denizens of Gothenburg were conscientious enough to police themselves. They checked out their books even though they probably could have just walked out the front door with them.
    - anttisalmela 3y ago
      At least here in northern Finland you could already do that even with staff present. Everyone goes in with backpacks or bags and with self service there's no way to actually monitor if all the books were properly checked out.
  - drewcoo 3y ago
    If that's the case, then they cannot know that all items taken were returned. They can only know that the items checked out were.
- 3seashells 3y ago
  >but many people are opportunistic thieves. My father used to think that. Turns out it's mostly untreated paranoid shizophrenia creating self fulfilling prophecies.
- shalmanese 3y ago
  This has been tested by researchers: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/734141432/what-dropping-17-000-wallets-around-the-globe-can-teach-us-about-honesty https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/734141432/what-dropping-17-00...
- apwheele 3y ago
  Criminologist here -- both baron and Emma are right! (The question is moreso in terms of rates, you can find anecdotes confirming either behavior.) Two of my favorite related articles: - Serendipity in robbery target selection[1]. Interviews with chronic robbers talks about how they cruise around looking for marks. They are strategic though in their "foraging". - The role of territoriality in crime prevention: A field experiment[2]. Experiment with leaving a $10 gift card on a desk in Uni library. (So similar to here, unlikely people going to library intending to steal.) There were thefts - in one condition 1/30 people who passed by nicked the card. Since a single chronic offender can commit many crimes, the current patterns of car break ins in cities are IMO likely driven by a small number of "professional" offenders, moreso than victim behavior. [1] http://www.d-ddaily.com/images/6-1-15_Serendipity%20in%20Robbery%20Target%20Selection%20Jacobs%202010.pdf http://www.d-ddaily.com/images/6-1-15_Serendipity%20in%20Rob... [2] https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1301910/1/Wortley_%26_McFarlane_2011_territoriality.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1301910/1/Wortley_%26_...
code_biologist 3y ago
About 7 or 8 years ago I lost my wallet in Golden Gate Park while tripping incredibly hard on LSD. I had been climbing around the trees and scrub for hours, so I was certain it was gone for good. A few months later it showed up in my mail halfway across the country (driver's license address). I was astonished, grateful, and wished I could send a reward or thanks — but it was literally just my wallet in a bubble mailer with $30 in cash untouched.
- em-bee 3y ago
  since you mention climbing trees and $30 in the wallet, the comedian Ismo made the joke that when he had his wallet stolen, he ran after the thief until he realized after some time of running that he had just gotten as much exercise as spending the same time at the gym, except that the gym would have cost him more than the $40 or $50 that were in the wallet.

HenryBemis 3y ago

I don't want to give them any ideas, but some books are expensive/of high value/rare/etc.

gylterud 3y ago
The trick is knowing which ones, and how to find a buyer.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Emma_Goldman 3y ago

Career thieves wouldn't scour a park for wallets, no, but many people are opportunistic thieves. If they happen upon money with no one in sight, they'll just take it, without thinking it's a big deal. The case in the article matches the second model, not the first. Hundreds of people realised they were in a library with no staff. Two-hundred books were taken out, presumably without anyone having to log their names. That would have made it extremely easy for them to just keep the books. But they were returned. Having few opportunistic thieves is, one would think, a good sign of societal trust and well-being. I'll just mention that security at UK university libraries is fairly tight, I know people who have accidently taken out books without logging them, and just kept them, and there have been cases at Cambridge where quite high-value books have gone missing.

kqr 3y ago
> Two-hundred books were taken out, presumably without anyone having to log their names. The article states that every book taken out was returned. I see two alternatives: 1. The staff conducted a full inventory a couple of weeks after the incident and confirmed that every book is still there. (By the way, at what rate are books smuggled out even during regular opening hours?) 2. The books that were taken out were borrowed against a library card using some sort of self-checkout station. I find option 2 much more likely, which meant the names were logged.
- Emma_Goldman 3y ago
  Perfectly possible, but if there were no staff, that means that the denizens of Gothenburg were conscientious enough to police themselves. They checked out their books even though they probably could have just walked out the front door with them.
  - anttisalmela 3y ago
    At least here in northern Finland you could already do that even with staff present. Everyone goes in with backpacks or bags and with self service there's no way to actually monitor if all the books were properly checked out.
- drewcoo 3y ago
  If that's the case, then they cannot know that all items taken were returned. They can only know that the items checked out were.
3seashells 3y ago
>but many people are opportunistic thieves. My father used to think that. Turns out it's mostly untreated paranoid shizophrenia creating self fulfilling prophecies.
shalmanese 3y ago
This has been tested by researchers: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/734141432/what-dropping-17-000-wallets-around-the-globe-can-teach-us-about-honesty https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/734141432/what-dropping-17-00...
apwheele 3y ago
Criminologist here -- both baron and Emma are right! (The question is moreso in terms of rates, you can find anecdotes confirming either behavior.) Two of my favorite related articles: - Serendipity in robbery target selection[1]. Interviews with chronic robbers talks about how they cruise around looking for marks. They are strategic though in their "foraging". - The role of territoriality in crime prevention: A field experiment[2]. Experiment with leaving a $10 gift card on a desk in Uni library. (So similar to here, unlikely people going to library intending to steal.) There were thefts - in one condition 1/30 people who passed by nicked the card. Since a single chronic offender can commit many crimes, the current patterns of car break ins in cities are IMO likely driven by a small number of "professional" offenders, moreso than victim behavior. [1] http://www.d-ddaily.com/images/6-1-15_Serendipity%20in%20Robbery%20Target%20Selection%20Jacobs%202010.pdf http://www.d-ddaily.com/images/6-1-15_Serendipity%20in%20Rob... [2] https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1301910/1/Wortley_%26_McFarlane_2011_territoriality.pdf https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1301910/1/Wortley_%26_...

code_biologist 3y ago

About 7 or 8 years ago I lost my wallet in Golden Gate Park while tripping incredibly hard on LSD. I had been climbing around the trees and scrub for hours, so I was certain it was gone for good. A few months later it showed up in my mail halfway across the country (driver's license address). I was astonished, grateful, and wished I could send a reward or thanks — but it was literally just my wallet in a bubble mailer with $30 in cash untouched.

em-bee 3y ago
since you mention climbing trees and $30 in the wallet, the comedian Ismo made the joke that when he had his wallet stolen, he ran after the thief until he realized after some time of running that he had just gotten as much exercise as spending the same time at the gym, except that the gym would have cost him more than the $40 or $50 that were in the wallet.